Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (22:16): (2755) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer. The action I seek is that, before this Parliament ends, the Treasurer commence a reform process to give charities certainty under section 74 of the Land Tax Act 2005, directing the Department of Treasury and Finance to consult and prepare drafting instructions for future legislation and formally requesting interim guidance from the commissioner of state revenue while that work proceeds. There is of course no longer time to pass a taxation bill before November, but that is no reason to leave charities in perpetual uncertainty. The problem could be significantly reduced even now. Across western Victoria, churches, community halls and charitable trusts provide spaces where children’s playgroups meet, support groups gather and organisations hire a room. Yet section 74 exempts land only where it is used and occupied by a charitable institution exclusively for charitable purposes. Charities are worried that one small non-charitable hire may put the exemption for that space at risk for an entire tax year. By contrast, section 72 gives non-profit sporting, recreational and cultural organisations a more workable test: their land need only be used primarily substantially for the relevant purpose. Charities receive no equivalent certainty.

This problem is neither hypothetical nor new. In 2022 Northern Community Church of Christ raised it with the then Treasurer. It was told that low-value community hiring should generally be regarded as incidental and that Treasury and the State Revenue Office would review the matter, yet it has been subsequently reported one church was tax-assessed after allowing a local children’s playgroup ad hoc use of its hall and another following a solitary hire of meeting space to a non-charity. Former National Party leader Peter Walsh raised this absurdity in the Assembly in May 2024. The current public ruling LTA-009v2 still provides no example involving a church hall, playgroup or occasional community hire. It leaves local charities guessing and fearful and likely to reject even reasonable use for fear they will be found in breach. A public ruling cannot rewrite the act, but interim guidance could explain explicitly how that occasional low-value community hire will be treated as incidental and what records charities should retain. There may be too little time to complete this reform. There is still time to begin it. I ask the Treasurer to commence that work and report to the house before this Parliament ends.